She walks, she talks, she crawls on her belly like a reptile. She's almost human. It's.....THE OPTO-MOM!!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Kids these days!

I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m going to gripe about kids these days. Yes, like the “old people” used to do when we were kids. I’ll do my best not to use the word “whippersnapper” or any other senior citizen terminology.

I recently read that in some school districts, the administrations have banned teachers from using red pens to correct their students’ papers. It seems that they don’t want to scare the children with that very frightening red ink. “It just seems too harsh,” said one administrator. “We prefer a more soothing color like purple.” What kind of pansies are we raising when a particular color of ink causes a child to need psychotherapy?

They are also banning the act of taking off points if the child forgets to put his or her name on their paper. You’ve gotta be kidding me! They wouldn’t have lasted 1 day with our teachers. I can’t tell you how many times we heard, “If it doesn’t have your name, how will I know whose paper it is?” I guess in these touchy-feely schools everyone just gets the same grade, so it doesn’t matter if your name is on it or not.

Speaking of grades, there are actually schools out there that don’t even give grades. They feel that grades inhibit the learning process. What a load of crap! How do you know who the dumb kids are if you don’t have any grades? (I know, that was just wrong!) These are the same schools that encourage children to play chess, arrange flowers, or practice yoga instead of focusing on reading, math, and science. Yeah, yoga and chess will really help you in your college classes and/or in the real world. And people wonder why the Japanese children outperform American kids in math and science scores. But I’ll bet our kids could kick their butts in flower arranging! I’m not so sure about the yoga and chess…

What’s going to happen when these whippersnappers (sorry, it slipped out!) get a job and have a performance review? They’ve never had anyone tell them that they aren’t perfect before. They’ve never had their papers corrected (with a RED pen!) or had the responsibility of simply writing their names on their papers.

I can just see it now…

Boss: I need you to get that report done this morning.

Whiney employee: But I usually do yoga from 9:45 to 10:15 and follow up with a rousing game of chess.

Boss: Uhhhh…you’re fired.

Then the whiner will most likely file a lawsuit alleging discrimination against pansy asses.

I have actually known parents who go to the school because their child’s teacher is too strict. “She wants everything done this way, and if they don’t do it, they get points taken off.” Well, duhhhh, just tell your kid to do it the proper way and everything will be fine. Now was that so hard? I see nothing wrong with teaching someone the proper way to do something, and then expecting them to do it. That’s why it’s called “teaching.” That’s what they used to do in schools. Remember those days?

Now to be fair, I love my daughter’s school and teachers and think they do a great job! When my daughter gripes about having to do something at school, I do not rush up there and make them change their policy because my little precious (and she really is precious!) wants to do it another way. I just tell her to suck it up and do what she’s told. Because that’s how I roll!

4 comments:

That was an awesome post. I have to agree. The other thing that bothers me is teachers not being able to comfort a child. I had a friend that taught kindergarten, and she said that they weren't allowed to hug a child if they were crying or not-what. She didn't care and did it anyway. I couldn't be a teacher in todays market. First of all I wouldn't teach any grade over, ummm 2nd, because of things like your post, but also, because if I wasn't able to comfort a crying child, it would just kill me.

They do at my daughter's school. I think they're careful about it, but I see my daughter get hugs every day. When she is getting out of the car each morning, she goes down the line and has to give a "hello hug" to each of the teachers and staff who are working the car line, LOL.

My children have had good teachers and not so good teachers. It's like everything else, some people are good at their job, some are not. I have been to the school over teachers who do not teach or control their classroom.

I agree with DD on the nurturing thing. My daughter attended a private Christian school, and my favorite thing about it was the wonderful nurtuing enviroment, esp. at an elementary level.

Our public school system here does warn against hugging etc. I know this because of the class I attended inorder to sub a few years ago.

It's sad that teachers have to be warned about this...I guess that's a sign of the times...Ugggh!

I agree with all above comments! There are good and bad.....we have both as most school systems do. We have teachers that are 150yrs old that retire-comback-retire then Sub! No names lol THOSE teacher ARE usually stuck in a mode that NO kid can satisfy! WHY because they are a 150 and dont remember the rules they set yesterday (;Red ink, I love red ink!! Much easier for me to see whats wrong. My kids and myself have had some papers gave back to us that looked like a murder took place on top of it...Red everywhere lmao Common excuses with children of all ages- ''they dont like me, they only mark up my papers, their mean to me,their nice to Bob and Sue and not me''....Ive heard it all. I subed for 6yrs too, God love those ltl bundle of joys (-; some parents you just cant please if you served their children breakfast in bed everyday!Angie and I have seen the good,the bad AND the ugly, but none of it had to do with red ink lol AND if you cant put your name on the paper then either a) you dont know your name and are in the wrong class or b) you forgot your name and are in the wrong class! Otherwise welcome to the trash can my friend!! You will usually only do it once or twice I mean that one IS hard to explain to the parents '''uhhhhhh I forgot my name""' and thats what I would have to say, because the truth of ''I was too lazy to put in on there first'', would not be acceptable!!

Subscribe To

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon

What you need to know about me

I am the proud mother of a 9-year-old daughter. I have been an optometrist for over 10 years, and love my job! I have been married to my husband for over 16 years. He works in the oilfield, and is also the lead guitarist for the rock band, SnakeBone...in his spare time!